It is common place in today's environment to find medical care providers with an assortment of medical devices that produce digital images that need to be subsequently analyzed by specialist to identify potential health issues with the highest confidence. Examples fields making use of medical imaging would include radiology, cardiology imaging, and radiotherapy device (X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, etc.), and increasingly in devices in other medical domains such as ophthalmology and dentistry. Transmission of these images, or studies, are complicated by the fact that they are subject to HIPAA requirements, whereby all entities that take possession of the studies, even when ephemeral, must be pre-qualified as HIPAA compliant. One solution to this problem is to establish a VPN between the medical provider and the diagnostic lab. However, this solution suffers from complexity and cost. Installing a VPN between two providers commonly means segregating the network at both ends to limit what each of the other parties can see. While doing this between a single set of providers may seem straightforward, it quickly become less tractable when a single provider needs to communicate over VPN with a plurality of other providers. This means creating a separate zone for each of the other providers, and installing a separate VPN for each of the other providers.
Another popular method of transmitting the imaging data is to store it on a CD, DVD, or other media and mail through the postal system or other transportation provider. In previous years, when networks were generally slower, this method held appeal. However, it suffers from lack of immediacy given that it is generally quicker to send data over todays network than to suffer the delays in physical transit for all but the largest of transmissions. Physical media is also prone to being damaged, stolen, or lost in transit.
What is needed is a system that is quick and easy to install and configure, complies with all regulations regarding privacy and security, and provides for immediate delivery with confirmation and traceability.